Will solar decathlon live up to great expectations?

John Wray, 20, of Finleyville, Pa., center, along with the rest of team West Virginia University tour the Orange County Great Park in January. The completed houses will be open for public viewing in early October. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

In the days and minutes before Irvine's new political majority voted to terminate Great Park public relations and lobbying contracts worth up to $1.1 million annually, those opposed to the move warned that it could doom a key event on the horizon – the U.S. Solar Decathlon, scheduled Oct. 3-13.

Councilman Larry Agran – now outnumbered politically on the council – compared terminating Forde & Mollrich's public relations contract to pulling a brain surgeon out of the room in the middle of brain surgery.

But another councilman has taken issue with that characterization, contending that the PR firm and others tasked with executing the event missed key deadlines, and that the event will still go on without them.

"I'm happy to bring in a brain surgeon if it's within our budget," said Irvine Councilman Jeff Lalloway, chairman of the Great Park Corp. board of directors since January, at the last board meeting.

He said the Great Park will pull off the event it promised the Energy Department, even without companies whose contracts were terminated by the council's political majority – Lalloway, Mayor Steven Choi and Councilwoman Christina Shea.

"I have great confidence, and staff has assured me that we can make this a complete success," he said. "The success of the Solar Decathlon was never dependent on a bloated multimillion-dollar public relations contract being employed at the park."

The park's board – made up of the five Irvine council members since January, when the council voted 3-2 to shrink the board from nine members – voted at its last meeting to seek a project manager to coordinate all the remaining elements of the decathlon, including fundraising and public relations. Lalloway has publically asked the park's staff to tell the board what else is needed to pull off the event. Hiring a project coordinator had always been part of the plan.

Lalloway said that parties cited as key to the event's success actually have been behind the planning curve. He said a detailed event plan that should have been submitted to the Energy Department by August still isn't complete. He said he's been told the deadline was extended to March, but he still wants a plan.

Agran called Lalloway's claim that key planning hadn't been done "a smear," and said the new political council majority had taken a "wrecking ball" to the decathlon's planning team.

"My impression is that's it's been going well," Agran said of the efforts in the past 12 months.

Calls to the Department of Energy for comment weren't returned.

Tim Shaw, external-affairs manager of the Great Park and one of the primary planners of the Solar Decathlon event, said the missed deadline is because the park and Energy Department officials agreed to extend planning deadlines through March.

This year's event is the first to be scheduled outside Washington, D.C., so after the Great Park was awarded hosting duties, novel issues began to crop up – for one, the need to anchor the houses because of the possibility of earthquakes, Shaw said.

"We've solved that problem, that particular problem," he said. But there are others still being worked out, including how to connect the homes to electricity and Internet sources.

Shaw said that, despite the extended deadlines, the Great Park is "absolutely" on track to host the decathlon and the park's accompanying energy expo, dubbed XPO, which the park hopes to back with sponsorships and make an annual event.

John Wray, 20, of Finleyville, Pa., center, along with the rest of team West Virginia University tour the Orange County Great Park in January. The completed houses will be open for public viewing in early October. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Representatives from the 20 collegiate teams competing in the Department of Energy Solar Decathlon assemble at the Orange County Great Park in January. In October, they will return to the site to build and operate solar-powered homes. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Colin Polleys, an engineering student from Rolla, Mo., stands alongside fellow members of team Missouri University of Science & Technology in January. Other students have come from as far as the Czech Republic and Austria for this year's Solar Decathlon. MACKENZIE REISS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Visitors tour the Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2011 in Washington, D.C. STEFANO PALTERA, STEFANO PALTERA/US DEPT. OF ENER
An artist rendering of the solar house designed by students from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology. COURTESY OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

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